To align with the level of other European countries of reference, Italy lacks 30,000 doctors and 250,000 nurses.
To fill this gap, our country should invest 30.5 billion euros, taking into account the greater need for healthcare personnel due to the higher average age of the Italian population.
The 18th Health Report of the Crea (Centre for Applied Economic Research in Health) of the University of Rome Tor Vergata presented today at Cnel is the count.
In Italy, in public health, there are 3.9 doctors per 1,000 inhabitants against the 3.8 average of France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Spain: but, correcting for the average age of the population (in reference to the high of over 75 in our country compared to others), 30,000 doctors would be missing.
Taking into account the approximately 12,000 doctors who retire each year, at least 15,000 would need to be hired each year for the next 10 years to fill the gap.
For nurses, the problem is even more striking: we have 5.7 per 1,000 inhabitants against 9.7 in EU countries: the shortage exceeds 250,000 units compared to European parameters and, in any case, only to implement the model designed by the National Plan for recovery and resilience, 40-80,000 more would be needed.
And there is little help from abroad: less than 5% of nurses arrive in Italy against 15% in the United Kingdom and 9% in Germany;
less than 1% of doctors compared to 10% in other countries.
Given the lack of vocations, the solution would be to offer them attractive economic conditions.
Instead, Italian doctors earn on average 6% less than their European colleagues and nurses 40% less.
"Without resources and without healthcare personnel, the 65% of services lost during the pandemic are impossible - write the authors of the report - from which the very elderly have suffered in particular".
Doctors body: ready in case of retirement at 72 years
Enpam, the social security body of doctors and dentists, is ready to implement the possible rule that will allow the available contracted doctors to remain in service up to 72 years in the waiting for young people to come and replace them.
This can be read in a note, in which the president of the Cassa Alberto Oliveti speaks of an extraordinary measure that "seems inevitable for the National Health Service and, although this may be counterintuitive, it is in the interest of young doctors.
In fact, given the current shortage, without a temporary extension for elderly affiliated citizens, many citizens would risk being left without a public service, while future family doctors would see their professional spaces disappear because in the meantime, as we have already seen, they would be occupied by doctors imported from non-European countries or even canceled by forced reorganizations of primary care". The "massive retirement was widely expected, so much so that Enpam has been sounding the alarm for more than 10 years.
Today this measure - it goes on - would make it possible to give greater solidity to the social security system of the category without taking away jobs from young people.
Indeed, it is essential that in the next three years all new general practitioners and paediatricians are trained.
In the meantime, says the note, Enpam can help buffer the situation by allowing contracted parties with certain seniority requirements to continue working up to 72 years of age, but reducing the workload and being supported, for the remainder, by young doctors already trained or still in training.
There is, in fact, the App, the advance of social security benefits, which allows the doctor to waive a portion of income, however starting to receive a part of the pension.
For example, those who continued to carry out 60% of their professional activity would begin to receive 40% of their pension allowance.